High Level Half Track (Bay of Plenty) Waiorongomai, North Island, New Zealand
By Le Motellier on 25-Sep-10. Waypoint GC2FQTQ

We didn't think we would get this one, after nearly a year unfound.
Coupled with no internet signal, we couldn't read prior logs.
But, we got it... followed the hint.
FP given for the sheer surprise.

Had to read some logs to find it but not too much trouble with the right hint. GPS a bit off. Tftc

Bit of a search but located in a bit. Tftc.

TFTC

Found it previously and didn’t log. Revisited finally. Thanks.

Well camouflaged and dry. No GPS coverage but followed the clues

Found, good hide. Thank you

Apache and I decided to go on a New Year's day hike we had a late start didnt arrive until after lunch but really were still home before dark. Quick find here after the massive hike up stopped for a we rest here before carrying on.
Tftc

Did loop up Butlers incline loop on a lovely day, was great to be in the the bush. TFTC

Couldn't find this a couple of years ago so very pleased to find it today, a great place to stop and refill the water bottles. TFTC

Found as a part of a previous group TanjackMüley, aka WanderingSparrow. Now I'm continuing on my own. TFTC

Took a few minutes to find this one a very beautiful waterfall we got a lot of help from Agazo who gave a better coordinate reading. thanks for the cache.

The five members of team QBday (Agazo, Aiden29, Bennett24, Kiwicouple and Tramyard) set out this morning to walk from the Waiorongomai Valley, across the saddle, up to the top of Mount Te Aroha and then back down to the Te Aroha domain. The 17.4kms took us a total of 8 hours of tramping and cache finding. Today the weather turned out mostly sunny but cold, after a couple of days of rain.
The track up the valley was mostly surprisingly dry given all the rain over the last couple of days, but the stream and waterfall near GZ were displaying nicely. We searched for several minutes around here before deciding to put a replacement cache in a spot that should be secure from getting washed away.

A group of 5 cachers from Auckland (Agazo, tramyard, Bennett24, kiwicouple and myself) all ventured down to hike over Mt Te Aroha. This ended up as an 8hr 17km hike, where we found 12 caches along the route. Thankfully it was a nice sunny day after the recent rain, although cold. We signed the log as QBday in honour of the long weekend.

We spent a good while scouring all over this area, but it looks like there have been landslips around this spot. We ended up replacing the cache in a more secure location away from the waterfall.

Found it with the Group called QBday on 17km hike during June Bank Holiday (Queen Birthday).

Well after long search at GZ we had nothing .... Most likely replaced cache was missing. We had few spare containers with us so left new one here. New container was replaced at more secure spot. Few meters before the waterfall on the left side by the bank. No need to leave the trail. Just beside small tree with some stones on top.
Good luck!

Have been looking at the Waikato Mountain challenge and our D/T grid for sometime now and noted there were two caches to get in this area. When I finally connected the dots I realised that you could make a single walk from the Waiorongomai Valley, across the saddle, up to the top of Mount Te Aroha and then back down to the Te Aroha domain. We planned this trip some time ago with a group we had done another adventure over the summer. I figured it was going to be about 7 hours and 13km but it actually turned into 8 hours and 17.4 kms. Fortunately the weather turned out great after a couple of days of rain and we were able to make the full hike (although difficult in parts) without any mishaps. Five of us took the journey (Agazo, Aiden29, Bennett24, Kiwicouple and Tramyard) and all caches were signed as Team QBday.

This cache is in such a scenic area I can understand why the CO placed it here. After reading the previous logs before we started I noted it had been replaced and thought we would not have a problem here, but was wrong in that assumption. The 5 of us spent about 20 minutes looking and rechecking every nook and cranny we could find including one venturing up close to the waterfall. Sadly no cache could be found and we suspect it had been washed out again due to signs of further erosion around.

We made the decision to replace this one again but have moved it a few metres away up the track to the one secure place we could find and it is nestled in the base of a tree with rock covering. Have sent the CO a message to confirm if this is okay. Thanks for bringing us to this lovely place.

The five of us searched high and low in every spot we could think of and didn't find the cache. We decided to place a new one not too far away and in a place that can't we washed out easily. The coords we took are: S37 33.060 E175 45.240. TFTC.

I have put a replacement cache in. Just checking with CO. It looks like there has been a bit of water through here so cache could have been washed away. TFTC

Seemed to be in the correct spot but no luck.
If it was placed near the stream then flooding could have claimed it.

Spent some time looking for this one but couldn't find it.

Did not get this one - gps not behaving and I found the up the Butler Incline easier than the down of the High Track lol!
On a walk doing the Piako Tramway walk and various other side tracks. Haven't been here before, steeped in history, great work done by the restoration teams!

Searched but disappointed we couldn't get the goods

Second day in Te Aroha and up for some more tramping. Great waterfalls at GZ. TFTC

*French*
Petite promenade sur les vestiges du passé.
Pas moyen de mettre la main dessus.

Nous ne restons que quelques minutes par cache car notre temps est compté

Le Motellier, thanks for the geocache
Frank et Muriel
Belgique
Log with GSAK

A great walk glad it flattened out cache in good shape

Cool fun exploring an interesting area.

Had caught up with a family of walkers, so had to wait for them to leave before I could collect this cache. I was nearly at the next one when I realised I'd lift my sunglasses back here, so had to wonder back to collect them! Luckily no one else had been by and they were sitting in the middle of the track.

Lovely walk. We found this one really easy. New log book in excellent condition

Fantastic find with Mr Hobbit. Sadly could not sign logbook as it is still wet through. Please replace and use a watertight container. Lovely area and well worth coming back to on a sunny summer day to shore under the nearby waterfalls.

Quick find while going back down the hill good clue had us on the spot.Log book is unusable could not sign took photo if needed great little place

Dot Day... Out with Gap (of Fap and Gap) of course... Our big plan is to head to Wairongomai Valley in the Kaimais and test out my new bionic eye on all those various high and low level tracks. Should be a challenge, but Gap has a job to do first before we head eastward...

Wairongomai: We made a split decision to follow the lower track to the top of Butler's Incline. This allowed us to pick up this cache along the way. We met up with a couple along the path and walked alongside them for most of the walk. We tried to ditch them before arriving at ground zone, but they walked quickly and soon caught up.

Fortunately, they had heard of Geocaching and were quite interested to know what it was all about. At this point, I was standing mid stream, giving them an account of what to look for (I was only 5 metres from the cache). We turned and spotted the tell-tale hiding spot. Sadly, this was not the poster of a well maintained cache. The contents were so wet, we couldn't get a pen or pencil to work on the log. We scratched our handles into the sodden book before returning the cache as found. Despite this set back, a great spot for a cache... TFTC.

1.10pm - After studying route map on GPS worked out this was the next one. Sadly to say cache very wet and needs replacing. Sorry didn't have any spare log sheets with us so marked name on a wet log. SLTFTC

Logbook needs replacing. This one is too wet and unusable. Sorry, we didn't bring a replacement.

my no.541
This was my last find today on the hike through this old gold mining area. I was surprised to also find nice waterfalls here. The cache was an easy find but all the contents were soaking wet.
Dies war mein letzter Fund auf der heutigen Wanderung durch dieses alte Goldminen-Gebiet. Ich war überrascht auf meinem Rückweg auch noch schöne Wasserfälle zu entdecken. Der Cache war leicht zu finden, aber der ganze Inhalt war klitschnass.

TFTC

Thanks. Another one on our explore of wairongomai with tbe kids

Our last find of the day after our loop walk. The logbook is very soggy. Great spot, we're all keen to come back here to the wairongomai for some more exploring. tftc

549 Cleaning up the caches in the Valley today. Log is very wet and hard to write.

(1216) Found while holidaying in the area. TFTC

The logbook is very wet...

Thank you for hiding this geocache! We had fun searching it!

This walkway was the absolute highlight of our day... that we've found geocaches like this, even made it better. TFTC

I was hiking in the Waiorongomai Valley for my first ever visit today - a really interesting area! I was hiking with Alligatorsnz and a few muggles and the hike took us right to the summit of Te Aroha for lunch, then returning again through the valley. This cache was located on the way back down the valley, on different tracks from our trip up. After a short search, Mr A found the cache - pretty close to the river, so understandably a bit wet! TFTC!

heading back down from a chilly and cloudy lunch atop Mt Te Aroha form a different direction this time... doing our best to skirt the tracks that we puffed nearly vertically up .. for a nice easy decent... just cleaning up a few straggling caches from my last visit in 2012.... along with vistra and a band of "very happy to be going down now thanks muggles"

Looks like the tide has found the cache location, as the log was really wet - all though Mr v's super write on wet paper pen did the trick in the centre of the log... the edge of the creek is now bout halve a meter from the hiding spot - and certainly looks like it floods it with ease.. ( have photo for you if you wish to email )

Quicker find than I expected it to be, which was handy. Enjoying the walk/run along these trails. Nice couple of waterfalls!

TFTC!

Cool cache location and a great walk with Kiwis69 and HKCB. TFTC

Found on the way back down he hill - used the hint, but still took a few minutes to locate the cache - TFTC !

Struggled with the GPSr.
After walking back and forward along the track, Broadbridges went to examine the waterfall.
I jumped across the stream to survey from that side, and noticed the hide.
TFTC

A nice little waterfall and a great walk. Thank you.

My 800th find. Neat mining history in the area means great places to explore. The cache contents are all good and dry. Cheers for the cache.

While tramping from Wairongamai Road on the Wairongamai
high level track to Te Aroha Domain.
Started the day with warm fine weather but by the time we
started to decend from the sumit to the domain down came the rain.

Not my day, had a brief look under the rock but my son found this one also where I was rummaging, ha

nice easy find, we had an awesome walk today we did 23.5km and got back to the car before the rain and hail came.

Nice quick find, as I headed down the track. Loved the waterfalls along this section of track.

I may have made this one harder than I needed to by not dropping down to it from above earlier this morning. However, I got to walk up most of Butlers Incline Track from the Low Level Track. That was entertaining. This is the last of the Wairongomai Valley caches for me, so it's back to the carpark for some dry, warm clothes. Plenty of rain around today so the tiny waterfalls are a picture. A great 5 hours spent in the area. TFTC

This entry was edited by tparty on Wednesday, 24 April 2013 at 05:55:03 UTC.

Enjoyable spot for a cache on a lovely walk. TFTC

Enjoying the downhill portion of todays walk, the caches were really bonus's. This one was last found by DOC workers.

TFTC

A new geocacher left a TB here but didnt know how to log itso i have done it for them.

Working my way through the Wairongomai Valley to enjoy the late Autum,, great little waterfalls and streams throughout the area and the interesting History boards along the way, TFTC

Heading back for lunch now. Cache found OK. TFTC

Lovely place for a cache
..very enjoyable to walk here, will return someday ...TFTC

What a nice little waterfall this is. The next stream has one also but with a little more water.

Cheers for the cache.

1st visit here: walked up a loop of Buck's track & then over & down the New Era track, thinking I'd leave this 1 for another day. Came past the bottom of Butler's incline & decided to take the hard route ... glad I made the effort, as really enjoyed this track past the waterfalls. Thanks for the incentive! Cache all good.

the signal wasn't that great, and no time to have a good look as the rest of my group are muggles and they where wondering why i was lagging behind AGAIN lol... another time perhaps;-)

Nice new log book and a nice wee bit of water to view

Fantastic walk. Good cache site. left travel bug JACMSA

Changed the log, please ensure the lid is tight and clean before placing the cache in its hide.

Left the family at Fern Spur and scooted up the High Level track. Never noticed this waterfall previously.
GPSr says only 511 metres to top of Butlers Incline; very tempted to carry on walking, but should go back.
Thanks for the cache!

Nice spot! Cache damp but useable. TNLC. TFTC.

What a beautiful spot. This one is pretty damp too , must have got a bit of rain up here over the past few days.

4th one for the day started with Fern Spur - then Buck's Rock then back tracked to High Level Track and picked this one up on way to Butlers Incline - Great cache TFTC

An easy find thanks to the excellent clue. Quite a bit of water coming down today

Legs were really tired by now.
It was a long day.

On the trail with GreenBlat, Tofska and Kiwi Leon. After a very long day walking we were reaching the end point. This was just a short detour on the way down to the car park. TFTC

M@ went and grabbed the cache while KiwiLeon, GadgetTron and GreenblAT gave directions

T4TC

After a long days walk, still had some energy to quickly skirt along the contour to find this one even though it meant back-tracking a bit. T4TC - M@

easy find, great track. tftc

6401 Took the wrong track at first, and couldn’t get closer than 120m, easy find once we doubled back and took the correct one, saw a couple of nice waterfalls along our route, TFTC.

Took a few minutes searching to locate the cache. Really nice area for a quick stop and cool down with some refreshing water from the waterfall. SL TFTC

Another great cache, thanks. tnlnsl.

Good little spot for a cache, enjoyed the waterfall while filling log. A welcome rest from the heat...

I took a 50m bush bash shortcut from the low level track to the high level track to find this one. This saved me time as I was doing all this areas caches in one go and would have had to do some doubling up of tracks otherwise. TFTC

coming back down from Bulters Incline and grabbed a
Generic Geocoin good for one

A few years since walking here. Nice to walk and read about the history. Hot day for the climb

A very scenic spot. And a great place on the track for the cache. Many thanks for the pause on the trip.

Good clue as gps coverage was poor TFTC

Found this cache straight away! On a nice trek with Mr and Mrs Cosclan!
Took The travel bug
TFTC

Quick find on an awesome day for caching, did this after coming back off the buttlers incline.
TFTC

Found this morning on the way down the loop track about 8 am. One of the kids had a diversion to the nearby waterfall and had a free unexpected shower!. Nice spot on the track to stop, thanks.
What a great backyard you have here. TNLN [red] TFTC [/red]
In TB

A pleasant stop next to the stream on the way down the high level track. No sign of the Iraqi coin so someone has grabbed it.
Many thanks

A nice spot on our way back down after a walk up Buttler incline with St Cuthbert's.

went up the Butlers Incline what a workout.Daughter wasn't IMPRESSED BUT did very well... .Droped off TB .didnt take FTF Prize saw it but didn't read JUMBOZ log.so its still there for the 3rd person.

After a bit of confusion at the start I finally made my way to GZ. Easy find with good clues.
A lot of mining history in this area. Worth a visit. FTF prize is still in cache as not suitable
or usable in my workshop. LOL
Cheers Jumboz

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